The invention is directed to a chest protector of the type used by catchers and umpires in baseball games in order to protect the wearer from being injured by the force impact from a baseball as might normally occur when the baseball is "foul-tipped" by a batter. Such "foul-tips" most often strike the catcher or umpire, and obviously, chest protectors have been used in the past to reduce/eliminate such damage.
Conventional baseball chest protectors are traditionally manufactured by placing small pieces of foam between front and back pieces of fabric, sometimes gluing the foam in place, and generally stitching the pieces of fabric to each other along the peripheral border, in voids between the pieces of foam, and sometimes through the foam. Some chest protectors utilize cotton which is simply pushed into ribs or chambers of fabric and appropriately stitched. The process of manufacturing such conventional chest protectors is labor intensive and time consuming and the protection afforded thereby is nominal at best.
Such traditional or conventional chest protectors also cannot diffuse the force of impact created by the forceful contact of a high-speed baseball, particularly with respect to such conventional chest protectors which include a plurality of spaced or separated ribs. The spacing between the ribs obviously offer no protection to the wearer of such conventional rib chest protectors.
Conventional chest protectors are also formed as a single unit, though made of a plurality of pieces, and are difficult, and inconvenient to transport, pack and wear. More importantly, it is difficult to place the chest protectors upon the user's body and remove the same therefrom because of the various rings, hook and like clasps which are required for attachment, detachment and/or adjustment. Furthermore, these hooks, buckles and clasps are normally necessarily placed in the lower front portion of conventional chest protectors and when struck by a baseball actually do considerable damage since they intensify the impact area of the baseball because of the hard nature of the material from which they are constructed (metal) and the abrupt/sharp edges thereof.